Coaching roots run deep for new Packers DC Mike Pettine

Former North Penn coach back in the NFL

GREEN BAY, WIS. » Coaching runs deep in Mike Pettine’s family.

Vacations to the Jersey shore as a child gave the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator a glimpse of the life. His father, a high school football coach in suburban Philadelphia, took a briefcase to the beach, settled a chair into the sand and went to work.

“I do the same ... But it’s a backpack. I’m a little more with the times,” Pettine said.

The lessons passed on by dad stay with him to this day.

Mike Pettine Sr., who died in Feburary 2017, was one of the most successful coaches in Pennsylvania prep history. Pettine, 51, is coaching again in the NFL after being hired by head coach Mike McCarthy to oversee the Packers defense. He returned after largely staying out of football following a two-year stint as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, serving as a consultant with Seattle in 2017.

“I thought it was normal for everybody else’s dad to carry a briefcase on to the beach,” Pettine said after a recent Packers practice. “He always had (football) on his mind, it was always there. If it wasn’t direct, it was always kind of lurking. He always had pen and paper close, if an idea popped into his head.” Those ideas often worked. The elder Pettine won 326 games at Central Bucks West High School and four state titles. He retired in 1999 following a third consecutive unbeaten season.

Pettine played for his father and later served as an assistant coach. He ended up across the field from his father, too, after taking the head coaching job at rival North Penn — matchups that often made Philadelphia-area headlines. Pettine

MIKE ROEMER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE In this file photo, new Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine watches linebacker Oren Burks work out during NFL rookie football camp in Green Bay, Wis. The coaching roots run deep in Pettine’s family.